Holy crap, is there a lot of shit to love in my world right now. I am 15 days from grabbing my dude’s hand and putting a fucking ring on it, packing up boxes to move to Portland, booking tents and air B n’ B’s on Kauai because HONEYMOOOOOON, and generally leading an all around stoked life. I have been reading with some serious velocity lately, and I wanted to share the things I’ve been loving with you guys, because as far as I can tell, my readers are totally 100% my people. We like all the right stuff!

I am a runner. Not in the sense that I run a lot, although I do sometimes. I am a runner in the sense that I am always going. I run face first into my way of eating, my exercise routine, my business. I move fast, I get shit done. No matter what anyone has to say about me, they certainly can’t accuse me of being lazy. I am productive as fuck.

As I mentioned last week, my end-of-Summer cold forced me to be productive about getting well, as opposed to dominating in the blog-o-sphere and the weight room. For many, many days (okay, five) I was forced to go really slow. I slept a lot. I worked minimally. I moved around like a blanket wrapped sloth. GOD, it was annoying.

In my slowness, I got depressed. I have moved from task to task quickly for about four months, rarely taking days off. I have felt AWESOME in the gym and in my personal life. I have felt light, happy, and accomplished, but I can see now that that was somewhat conditional. To watch my good mood come crashing down at the first sign of illness shocked me, and then I realized: who you become when shit kind of sucks is really good insight into who you are.

While I got well, I spent a little time getting to know myself better. I acknowledged that productivity and accomplishment IS great and it IS gratifying, but it does not inherently change who I am, or dissolve the ability to get sad. If I can only be happy when I’m working, well, then I can’t truly be happy. My goal for this week of slow was to build myself up enough to eventually be okay not doing a damn thing. It kind of worked (I’m outta my funk for now and feeling strong again!) but I am well aware that it will be an ongoing process.

Maybe I should block off some “go slow” time in my calendar.

And now the workouts:

Monday: slow walk around Lake Merritt, which is about 5 miles.

Tuesday: another slow stroll around the lake

Wednesday: 5 sets 5 of what I would consider a medium weight deadlift of 135 lbs. This was pretty far from my regular max effort, but holy shit did it tax me.

Thursday: Feeling a little better! Planned to go on a lake walk again, and got inspired so about ½ of it was a run.

Friday: 5 sets of 5 box squats. (This is like a back squat, but at the bottom you sit on a box for a second, thus destroying your momentum and making everything harder). I used 115 pounds.
Then: 15 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of 10 pistols, 10 push ups, and a 100M sandbag run. I used a 20 pound sound bag and got 8 rounds.

Saturday: Major rest day. I had to wake up at 4:30AM to do some work for KeVita, and was just toast by the time I got off at 2:00PM. Lots of napping and eating on Saturday.

Sunday: Kett and I did the workout “DT” together, and it was crushing. DT is 5 rounds for time of 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, and 6 push jerks. I used a 70 lb. bar and it took me 13:35. OW, my dudes. OW.

While I am well aware that this might not seem like a down week for some, it DEFINITELY was for me. I feel much better this week and am excited to get back to my regular routines!

I made a workout mix for you and an exercise routine to go with it. (It’s called “work it, gurl” but “gurl” is very non-gender specific because DUH, all kinds of people can sweat it out to this mix.) I am VERY excited to present it, as this is the first workout I’ve made, and I want to do a lot more of this sort of thing.

Below you will find the workout moves, a PDF of the movements in large text (so you can print it out and see what you’re doing as you go) and some video links of how to do the movements so you’re doing them with proper form. Please make sure to properly warm up and cool down, because you gotta treat your muscles like gold if you want them to continue to support you.

For reference: AMRAP is a crossfit term, it means as many rounds as possible. I use poker chips or pennies to count my rounds, as when I am sweating my face off I tend to be forgetful. I recommend doing this workout once a week and trying to beat your previous times!

Lastly, use headphones if you can. There is a sprint run midway, and it won’t really work if you can’t time it with the music.

Pre mixtape- Take a run around your block, at a very easy pace. Take deep breaths, feel rad in your body. You deserve this.

Austra- Darken Her Horse: 30 second run in place, 15 jumping jacks, 10 slow air squats. STRETCH however feels good for the duration of the song. Maybe try downward dog, warrior one, two, and three on each side. (Jumping Jacks, Air squats)